Collected discoveries from here and about

What you’ll find here: Downloadable Maps & PDF Guides for the PC Roleplaying game Morrowind, including a list of Recommended Mods, a Beginner’s Guide to Console Commands, links to other Morrowind Resources, recommended External Utilities and a personal collection of Tips & Troubleshooting help.

“Morrowind isn’t just a game; it’s an entire hobby unto itself”

– Fessic

Special Note: If this is your first time hearing about the game Morrowind please pause for a moment to read my post titled ‘What’s the deal with this Morrowind game.’ For those of us who played it back in the day, it was more than just your typical CRPG.

The PC version of Morrowind is really just a framework, a starting point. It’s the vast variety of user-created mods that enable players to build upon this framework, and craft a unique game world more suitable to their individual play style. Coupled with some of the External Utilities (discussed further below) mods can also be used to vastly improve upon the visual aesthetic of the original game, making for a completely fresh gaming experience. The unique version of Morrowind I have assembled is based on what you’ll find in the attached PDF. Those most likely to get any use out of this list are:

1. Players who prefer a rich and challenging game world that sticks to the core Morrowind ethos

2. Looking for clean, quality mods, already playtested by others

3. Anyone curious to know what my favorite mods are

As a general rule mods chosen for this list represent a balance between quality work, balanced gameplay, and good (but not overdone) visual quality. Screenshots for a good majority of these can be found HERE.

Console Commands can be extremely useful, but only if you’re comfortable with how to use them. I’ve tried to use plain language and a clean layout in order to introduce some of the more useful basic console commands. Use em to get your character unstuck, fix NPCs, or assist with playtesting mods.

Back in 2006 I put together a semi-organized PDF document and called it “Morrowind Configuration Guide.” A not very accurate title now that I think about it. Still, it had some useful information about some of the external utilities I’d been using, and a respectable collection of tips and other tidbits. As I continue doing a bit of Morrowind Stuff housecleaning it occurred to me that some of that collected information could serve two discrete documents, each with better focus. Here is the first of the two: Fessic’s personal collection of Morrowind Tips & Troubleshooting.

The attached PDF document offers a brief introduction to some of the external utilities I’ve gotten comfortable using over the years. They have significantly enhanced my Morrowind gaming experience, and to no small degree at that. Each featured program comes with a few introductory usage notes that should help most users get started. Utilities featured are:

Since discovering Morrowind back in 2005 I have immensely enjoyed discovering and playtesting the many wonderful user-created mods released by the community, adopting many of them into my own game. In the midst of this, I must admit that it has been disappointing, though sadly not surprising, that so much unhealthy and unnecessary content has also emerged from within the Morrowind modding community…for a game that never needed it. You could probably say it was inevitable that some users would take things in this direction. Whatever your feelings about it, I hope you will find it worthwhile to screen out mods that drastically alter the spirit and intent of Morrowind’s original game world, and ESRB rating. I believe that in the long run, if you really enjoy playing this game, you’ll find it a much more rewarding experience without prurient and immature content.

When you stop to consider the original definition and intent of the word “Mature” (as expressed in rating systems) it becomes easy to see how this word has become twisted around in an almost ironic sort of way. The team over at Game Maker Games has, I think, articulated it best…

“We also don’t use silly terms like mature to represent games that are most likely to be enjoyed by an audience whose maturity level is inversely proportionate to the level of so-called ‘mature’ content in said games.”

Since I believe there is a strong correlation between pornography, and the tendency to create this sort of content, you may also be interested to read some of my thoughts and observations about A Man Addicted to Pornography.

Empire of Tamriel – Morrowind may seem like a vast expanse of land when you’re exploring it on foot. But in reality it’s just a small province situated in the Northeast corner of a much larger continent. That continent is known as the Empire of Tamriel. Credit goes to Zeph (Carsten Flaake) for compiling this map.

Morrowind Travel Map – This Travel Map shows the fast-travel routes for all Boats, Mage Guilds and Silt Striders. It can definitely come in handy but isn’t intended for the more ‘purist minded’ roleplayers. If anyone knows who made this please let me know so I can credit them appropriately.

Map-O-Mods: Landmass Additions – A lot of mods either make significant changes to an area of the game world or in many cases introduce an entirely new landmass to Vvardenfell. Sometimes these additions can overlap, leading to minor conflicts if not addressed ahead of time. This helpful map tries to show where some of those overlaps occur. Created by Cryonaut.

Original Maps – These are the original maps that shipped with the core game and each Morrowind Expansion; scanned, stitched and un-seamed by Raptormeat.

The following links are presented in categories, and geared toward newcomers.

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Before You Even Get Started

Gluby’s Comprehensive Guides – If you are thinking about jumping in to the PC version of Morrowind, which is an adventure all its own, do yourself (and the community) a huge favor and spend some time reading through Gluby’s Guides…before even installing the game. These guides represent an articulate amalgamation of collected wisdom, presented in a friendly and highly readable format (that’s also easy on the eyes). Even if you aren’t planning on using mods just now there is much to be gained in terms of having a clean and stable base installation of the game.

Working With Mods

Starting Out With Mods – This helpful tutorial by Ronin49 will walk you through the seemingly daunting task of adding mods to Morrowind. Spend a few minutes reading through this well-written guide and you’ll soon discover it’s not nearly as bad as it seems at first. By starting off with a basic understanding of installation, load order, cleaning and usage of mod utilities, Ronin49 will have you up and running in no time.

Yacoby’s Load Order Tutorial – If you plan on running a lot of mods then you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the practice of Load Ordering. While it may seem a bit complicated at first, thanks to Yacoby it doesn’t have to be. He’s put together an excellent tutorial explaining everything you need to know about setting up a good Load Order.

Gameplay FAQs, Hints and Walkthroughs

WARNING: These sites contains spoilers.

Hannah’s Whereizit is one of the best resources for getting to those “hard to find Morrowind places, people and items.” In other words, if you’re stuck on the main quest then this is a helpful resource to turn to. The site went down some years ago but a functional facsimile remains behind on the Wayback Machine.

Arwen’s Morrowind Journal – Few people have managed to capture the spirit of adventure and discovery in the world of Morrowind as Arwen has done. Join in the comedic adventures of a “clueless” Wood Elf as she seeks to make sense of a strange new land, and the political infighting of Tamriel’s Dark Elf province.

The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages has put together a well-organized Wiki, useful for digging through Morrowind related information, including a complete walkthrough for the main storyline (and tips on fixing broken quests).

Emma’s Elder Scrolls Forum – One of the better third-party forums, with a focus on mods by Emma and Grumpy, two of the community’s preeminent modders (and all around helpful people).

UESP Forums – From the same group who brought us the original Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (see above).

Other Useful Resources

OpenMW – Here’s something worth a look. OpenMW is an ambitious attempt to create an open-source (and presumably cross-platform) implementation of the Morrowind game engine. What does that mean in plain language? Potentially, a more stable Morrowind that runs on Windows, Mac and Ubuntu.

Tamriel Rebuilt – The original game takes place (primarily) on the island of Vardenfell, off the coast of mainland Morrowind. For more than ten years the Tamriel Rebuilt project team has been painstakingly crafting the remainder of the province, opening up vast untold cities, towns and other areas for players to explore. Truly one of the most impressive and inspiring fan projects in the modding community. This interactive map illuminates progress.

If you think about it, Morrowind is really an ideal sort of medium for a web comic. Everything about the game world is completely customizable, from your main character to the look of the game world itself. With the added flexibility of the in-game camera and the built-in Console feature the possibilities are practically endless. Right around the time I started my first adventure it was on my mind to try a short web comic, inspired by others I’d seen. I was pretty excited about it at first and thought it might turn into an epic adventure. But, as with other projects of this kind life sort of got in the way and it really just turned out to be a fun experiment. So, here it is. The brief legacy of my first Morrowind character Fenius, starring in “The Misadventures of Fenius Longfellow.”

Stepping off the Imperial Prison Ship Fenius finds himself bewildered by his recent good fortune. One day he’s pondering his fate in a dusky old prison cell and the next he’s bound for the Northern district of Morrowind, a free Elf on an Imperial ship. Well, almost free. This island province, bearing the ancient name of “Vvardenfell” is no place for a Wood Elf, especially one who had previously made his living as a thief. Now here he was, smack in the center of Dunmer territory where his presence is sure to be less than welcome by the indigenous Dark Elves…with their sour dispositions toward all things foreign. Many thoughts cross Fenius’ mind as he is led toward the office of the local Magistrate. What is the real purpose for this sudden and undeserved freedom? What possible use could the Emperor have for a simple Wood Elf? And why was he sent all the way out here to the farthest corner of the kingdom? These are all questions to which poor Fenius will have to find an answer, as he sets about to find a way in this foreboding new world. Thus begins the story of Fenius Longfellow…